How I became part sea urchin | Catherine Mohr

Translator: Abe Felisa Reviewer: Ade Indarta

My story starts in the northern Galapagos Islands,

Kisah saya berawal di Kepulauan Galapagos bagian utara,

50 kaki di bawah permukaan laut dan sekelompok hiu.

under 50 feet of water and a big school of sharks.

I'd been scuba diving with a group of friends for about a week,

Saya menyelam dengan beberapa teman sekitar satu minggu,

dan semuanya menakjubkan:

and it had been glorious:

manta rays, whale sharks,

ikan pari, hiu paus,

penguins and, of course, hammerhead sharks.

penguin, dan tentunya, hiu martil.

Today's dive was particularly tricky.

Penyelaman zaman sekarang ini cukup sulit.

The surge was terrible.

Gelombangnya buruk.

You had to have your camera rig tight in

Anda harus pegang rig kamera erat-erat dengan tangan berjaga-jaga

and your arm out,

because the surge kept throwing you into the rocks

karena gelombang terus menghempas Anda ke bebatuan

selagi Anda mencari pemandangan indah untuk difoto,

while you're scanning up for that beautiful photograph.

It was going OK, until ...

Semua baik-baik saja, sampai ...

not OK.

tidak baik-baik saja,

Something was terribly, terribly wrong.

Ada yang amat sangat salah.

I pulled my hand back,

Saya menarik tangan saya,

and I had long, black sea urchin spines

ada duri bulu babi panjang dan hitam

all the way through my gloves,

menembus sarung tangan saya,

which meant all the way through my hand.

yang artinya menembus tangan saya.

Now, this is bad.

Nah, ini buruk.

I mean, obviously when you have something all the way through your hand,

Maksudnya, tentu ketika ada sesuatu menembus tangan Anda,

it's kind of bad anyway,

itu pasti buruk.

Tapi di sini,

but in this case, sea urchins have a venom on them that,

bulu babi punya racun yang jika Anda pernah terkena,

if you've ever tangled with them,

you know that a sea urchin spine in you gives you horrible, painful inflammation.

Anda tahu duri bulu babi menyebabkan bengkak yang sangat buruk dan menyakitkan.

But that wasn't even topmost in my mind at this point.

Tapi bahkan itu bukan apa yang saya pikirkan waktu itu.

This did not look real.

Ini tidak terlihat nyata.

I could not believe that this was my hand.

Saya tidak percaya itu tangan saya.

Nah, di saat krisis, saya memecah pikiran seperti ilmuwan kecil,

Now, in a crisis, I tend to disassociate into, like, little scientists,

and I start talking very analytically.

dan saya mulai bicara secara analitis.

All analysis was gone, adrenaline brain kicked in,

Saat semua analisa hilang, adrenalin pada otak mulai bekerja,

and I just yanked the spines out.

dan saya cabut saja bulunya.

I don't remember doing it.

Saya tak ingat melakukannya.

I just remember thinking, "I can't get my glove off with these in here."

Saya hanya ingat berpikir, "Saya tak bisa lepas sarung tangan kalau masih menancap."

I do remember taking the glove off

Saya ingat saya melepas sarung tangan

and a big plume of black coming up in front of my face.

dan gumpalan cairan hitam menyebar di depan wajah saya.

And biologist brain now shows up and starts freaking out.

Dan otak biologis muncul dan mulai ketakutan,

"How could all that toxin have gotten into that wound already?"

"Bagaimana mungkin racunnya sudah masuk ke dalam luka?"

Well, physicist brain then shows up and very calmly explains,

Yah, otak dokter kemudian muncul dan dengan tenangnya menjelaskan,

"No, no, no, we're at 50 feet,

"Tidak, tidak, kita di kedalaman 50 kaki,

red wavelengths are attenuated.

gelombang warna merah lemah,

That's blood -- not black.

itu darah -- bukan cairan hitam.

And sharks.

Dan hiu.

So what are you gonna do?"

Jadi kau mau bagaimana?"

Well, I cranked my cummerbund down really hard over my hand,

Yah, saya menekan tangan saya pada ikat pinggang dengan sangat erat,

and I simply swam away.

Dan saya berenang menjauh begitu saja.

"Let's let that big old cloud of blood dissipate a bit before we have to surface

"Biarkan gumpalan darah itu agak hilang sebelum kita naik ke permukaan

through all of these sharks."

melalui semua hiu itu."

So when I did surface,

Jadi saat naik ke permukaan,

my warm-blooded-mammal brain

otak mamalia berdarah panas saya

was in an absolute gibbering panic:

penuh dengan ocehan kepanikan:

"They don't feed when they're schooling. They don't feed when they're schooling.

"Mereka tidak berburu saat berkelompok. Mereka tidak berburu saat berkelompok.

All the way up."

Sampai ke permukaan."

And they didn't.

Dan memang tidak.

So apparently, they have read the same books that I have.

Jadi ternyata, mereka sudah baca buku yang sama seperti saya.

(Laughter)

(Tawa)

Now, it turns out,

Nah, ternyata,

when you've been stabbed with sea urchin spines,

ketika Anda sudah tertusuk duri bulu babi,

and you're two days away from any medical help,

dan Anda berada dua hari lamanya dari pertolongan medis,

the thing that you've got to do is, unfortunately, cook your hand.

yang harus dilakukan adalah, malangnya, memasak tangan Anda.

So you put it in water as hot as you can stand,

Jadi, masukkan tangan ke air sepanas yang bisa ditahan,

and you keep adding boiling water

dan terus tambahkan air mendidih

until you think you will go absolutely insane.

sampai Anda pikir bahwa Anda benar-benar akan jadi gila.

Now, it worked --

Nah, cara itu berhasil --

the hand itself did not work so well for several weeks after that,

tangannya sendiri tidak begitu baik beberapa minggu setelahnya,

but eventually, fine motor skills returned.

tapi pada akhirnya, motorik halusnya pulih.

All except for one spot, that stayed stiff and painful for weeks

Semuanya kecuali satu titik, yang tetap kaku dan sakit beberapa minggu

after the other things had gotten better.

setelah yang lainnya membaik.

So it turned out, I'd broken off a tip of the urchin spine

Jadi ternyata, saya mematahkan ujung duri bulu babi

in the joint itself,

pada persendiannya,

and that's why it wasn't getting better.

dan itu sebabnya lukanya tidak membaik.

So the orthopedist says, "You know, we should get this out.

Ahli ortopedi mengatakan, "Anda tahu, ini harus dikeluarkan.

Nothing too urgent, not an emergency."

Tak ada yang gawat, tidak darurat."

So we scheduled a small surgery for a few weeks out on a Monday.

Jadi kami menjadwalkan operasi kecil di hari Senin beberapa minggu kemudian.

And on the Friday before,

Dan hari Jumat sebelumnya,

I broke my pelvis in a horseback riding accident.

tulang panggul saya patah dari kecelakaan menunggang kuda.

(Laughter)

(Tawa)

Yeah.

Yah.

Jadi, kami menunda operasinya.

So we kind of postponed that surgery.

My broken pelvis and I were now facing six weeks on the couch,

Tulang panggul saya dan saya saat itu menjalani enam minggu di sofa.

dan saya pasti bisa gila jika bukan karena teman saya.

and I would have gone absolutely insane if it hadn't been for my friends.

Spontaneous parties broke out at my house every night for weeks.

Pesta dadakan diadakan di rumah saya setiap malam selama beberapa minggu.

I was fed. I was entertained.

Saya mendapat makanan. Saya terhibur.

It was great.

Menyenangkan.

But that kind of enthusiasm is sort of hard to sustain over the long term,

Tapi antusiasme semacam itu sulit dipertahankan dalam jangka panjang,

and eventually it petered down to just one friend,

dan akhirnya berkurang sampai hanya satu teman saja,

who would send me jokes during the day

yang mengirimkan guyonan di siang hari

and come and keep me company in the evenings --

datang dan menemani saya di malam hari --

someone I got to know a whole lot better during this period of convalescence.

seseorang yang bisa saya kenal lebih dalam selama periode pemulian ini.

And when I was finally pronounced well enough

Dan saat saya akhirnya cukup sehat untuk mengangkat beban berat,

to do weight-bearing activities,

we loaded a telescope in the car and drove up into the mountains

kami mengangkut teleskop ke mobil dan berkendara naik ke pegunungan

to look at the Hale–Bopp comet.

untuk melihat komet Hale-Bopp.

Yes, we are geeks.

Ya, kami kutu buku.

And got caught in a landslide.

Dan terperosok di tanah longsor.

(Laughter)

(Tawa)

I know -- like, really?

Aku tahu-- sungguh?

No. Just kidding.

Tidak. Bercanda saja.

(Laughter)

(Tawa)

No more disasters. No. Just the opposite, in fact.

Tak ada lagi bencana. Tidak. Tapi sebaliknya.

That was 21 years ago,

Itu 21 tahun yang lalu,

and for 19 of those years,

Dan selama 19 tahun itu,

I have been married to that marvelous introvert

saya telah menikah dengan si pendiam yang mengagumkan itu

who never in a million years would have approached me

yang takkan pernah mendekati saya di keadaan yang lain.

under other circumstances.

Kami dianugerahi puteri 14 tahun yang hebat,

We have a wonderful 14-year-old daughter,

who did all my illustrations.

yang menggambar semua ilustrasi saya.

(Cheers and applause)

(Sorak dan tepuk tangan) Ya.

Yeah.

So, pro tip:

Jadi, kiat pro: ternyata, tak ada yang membuat Anda seksi

apparently, nothing makes you sexier than needing a walker

selain alat bantu jalan di kencan pertama.

on your first date.

So this isn't a story about piercings

Jadi ini bukan cerita tentang tertusuk,

atau hiu, atau merebus, atau mematahkan.

or sharks or boilings or breakings.

It's a love story.

Ini kisah cinta.

It's a love story with a funny little epilogue.

Ini kisah cinta dengan sedikit epilog yang lucu.

Now I was weight-bearing again, I could reschedule that surgery,

Sekarang saya sudah bisa berjalan, saya bisa menjadwal ulang operasinya,

get the spine out.

untuk mencabut durinya.

But I didn't need it anymore.

Tapi saya tak butuh lagi.

Turns out, when you break a bone,

Ternyata, saat Anda patah tulang,

your body scavenges calcium from all the bones in your body --

tubuh Anda mengumpulkan kalsium dari seluruh tulang di tubuh --

and from the little sea urchin spine that you happen to have lodged

dan juga dari duri bulu babi kecil yang telah bersarang

in the joint of your finger.

pada sendi jari Anda.

Jadi ya,

So yes,

my pelvis is now part sea urchin.

tulang panggul saya sekarang ini sebagian bulu babi.

(Laughter)

(Tawa)

So to biology brain, physicist brain,

Jadi selain otak biologi, otak dokter, otak adrenalin, otak mamalia,

adrenaline brain, warm-blooded-mammal brain,

I get to add "urchin brain,"

saya tambahkan "otak bulu babi,"

with all of the superpowers that that confers.

dengan semua kekuatan super yang dibawanya.

You don't need to worry, though:

Anda tak perlu khawatir: bahwa saya bukan sepenuhnya manusia,

that I am not fully human is one of the things

itu salah satu hal yang keluarga saya paling cintai akan saya.

that my family loves the most about me.

(Laughter)

(Tawa)

Thank you very much.

Terima kasih banyak.

(Applause)

(Tepuk tangan)